Dystopian Girls

by Rodzil LaBraun

  I spent a half hour after breakfast the next day scouting meticulously from the roof. I had to be careful not to be spotted as I unhurriedly rotated from side to the side, making notes of everything I saw. I was disappointed in myself that I had not been doing this all along. I could see surprisingly well from my perch on a sunny day with the use of the binoculars. I vowed to never go without this advantage ever again.

  The church next door was now a hub of skanky activity with rotters coming and going regularly. So far, the militia girls had not found them. There was still one truck parked by the barricade way up on the main road to the north, but most of them had moved on. Maybe they had taken all the recruits that they needed for now.

  A good distance to the south, just on this side of a major intersection with exit ramps, sat another barricade with a similar truck. I had not seen that before. Apparently, they were planning to take control of the area by blocking the major routes. I could see from my weathered road map that the side streets on both sides of the main road eventually led to neighborhoods that connected to Randolph Road to the east and the west. That meant that people could take these streets to avoid the main road. However, to the southwest, there were several roads that didn't go anywhere. If I wanted the best privacy, that is where I should be. The tall trees down that direction blocked the entire view, though. If I wanted to scout it, I would have to do it on foot.

  Jada and Alexa were exercising when I went roof side, with plans to do some weapons training. When I eventually returned, they were instead engaged in a heated battle of the Castles & Catapults card game. Alexa had seven gold played to Jada's one, evidently stealing most of it from her opponent. Once the game ended, I shared with them my idea of scouting the neighborhood to the southwest with the intention of finding a more secluded place to live. Both girls hated to leave the store that had become our home but agreed that we were way too exposed to any groups passing through. After a quick lunch all three of us were packed and ready to go.

  We carried our backpacks loaded with supplies to last us a couple days, just in case. And some weapons, too. Jada had her spear, hatchet, and two sheathed knives. I brought knives that I kept in a pouch hanging from my belt, and a bag of marbles for use with my ability. Alexa brought the baseball bat and a pocket knife. She wasn't comfortable yet with any exposed blades. We didn't plan on bringing back any new supplies, so we wouldn't have to bother with the wagon slowing us down.

  We stealthily crossed the main road by the store onto Norcross Way, which I had scavenged before. Ignoring the houses there, we made our way through the properties of three more churches cautiously. I saw a few skanks wandering around all of them. Were they drawn to the religious aspect of the facility or just the size and shape of the building? If ever people were likely to find religion, it was when they were at their lowest. You couldn’t get much lower than a skank, I’d think.

  All the recon and sneaking around to avoid detection made the journey time consuming. We had traveled less than a mile in two hours when we came across a high school on Valley Brook Road. Though it was off the beaten path, the size of the complex would draw too much attention to be our new home, I thought. And all those entrances? That would be a real challenge to defend. It looked like the best path to the next street would be right beside the school. As we approached the building, I could see movement near the front entrance. There were two girls there with hunting rifles. The variety of cars parked in front of the education facility were regular sedans, no cargo or transport trucks in sight. This was likely a different group than the one blockading New Hampshire Avenue.

  The three of us stayed hidden in the woods at the edge of the soccer field for several minutes as we observed the school grounds. There were another two girls with rifles that appeared to be on patrol, circling the pale brick building. Each woman that we had seen thus far were not wearing anything that resembled a uniform. I figured that they might be more of the survivalist type than military. They did not carry themselves like soldiers.

  Just the same, we took a wide path around the school as we headed over to the next couple roads. Houses there were well spaced apart, and of decent size. With so much open space between them, it took us forever just to check out just a few houses. Some had been broken into and well picked through, but there were a couple that seemed like they might make good new homes for us. We started a list of potential locations making note of all the pros and cons to each.

  At the end of Warrenton Road, we came across a river and a long driveway leading to four more houses up a hill according to the mailboxes at the entrance. Since you couldn’t get much more remote that that, we decided to check it out. About halfway up the driveway we spotted two more of the rifle toting women headed our way. They were involved in a conversation, too distracted to spot us. Quickly, we darted into the thick brush beside the narrow asphalt passage and waited. The movement had evidently caught their eye and they were approaching our location cautiously.

  "Alexa? Can you sense anything?" I asked.

  "Yeah, a little," she replied quietly. "They are nervous, but not scared. I don't think they consider us a serious threat at this point. Maybe they are not sure what they saw."

  "They might think we are skanks," Jada said. "We could use that to our advantage."

  "I think you are right," I replied. "Why don't you try to circle around behind them. Don't get caught. We'll be too far away to help each other. I'll stay here and protect Alexa. When they get close, I might have to show myself. Watch for my cues."

  With that Jada worked her way silently through the underbrush behind us to get some space between her and the driveway before heading up the hill. I lost sight of her quickly, which meant she was successful in her stealth. Hopefully, there weren't more of these rifle women wandering around. So far, they always seemed to be in pairs.

  We waited patiently for them to get close to our position. Before they reached an angle to see Alexa cowered down behind a stump, I decided to reveal myself. I was prepared to dodge bullets, if needed. My heart was racing at the idea, not fully confident in my abilities yet. I wanted to try the diplomatic approach first. That would also allow Jada more time to flank them.

  "Hello!" I said loudly as I stepped from the woods onto the pavement with my hands visible. They were maybe thirty feet away from me still. "I mean no harm. As you can see, I don't have a gun."

  "Who are you?" the first woman asked. I guessed that she was in her thirties, dirty blond hair, a little stocky. Her brunette partner might have only been just a teenager from her appearance. She was a plain looking thin girl wearing boots that were clearly not made for hiking. She in particular looked worried when I stepped out of the woods. They were not expecting to find a healthy man, no doubt. The two rifle barrels were raised in my direction hastily. I began to wonder if I could dodge two bullets at the same time.

  "My name is Mason."

  "Who are you with?" the blond asked taking a protective stance slightly ahead of the younger girl.

  "Nobody. I'm alone."

  "Hah," the woman replied. "No real man is alone in this world. Are you sick?"

  "No, just hungry. Do you have any food you can spare?"

  "We have food back in our compound. Put your hands on your head and turn to face downhill. We'll take you there and let Mac decide if you are worth feeding."

  "I'm no threat to you or your people," I replied. I did not want to put myself in a blind position by following her orders. Hopefully, Jada was already in position. I couldn't see her. "If you don't have food to share just let me go. I'll find my own somewhere else."

  "No, you won't," the older woman responded. I could see now that the teenage girl was scared outright. She was almost trembling with her finger on the trigger of her small rifle. "We'll shoot you where you stand before we let you go."

  That's when a familiar spear came flying out of the brush just twenty feet away from our opponents to strike the teenager in the back of her thigh. She screamed out, of co
urse, and fired a shot in reaction to the blow that nearly grazed me. The older blond turned quickly and fired a shot toward my warrior friend who was now exposed along the roadside, her hatchet in her hand. I focused hard on deflecting the shot from hitting Jada. She must have been confident that I would do just that. Instead of diving for cover she threw the hatchet to strike the woman directly in the face. I cringed immediately from the gruesome sight. My guess was that she died instantly as she fell backwards to the ground with her rifle still clutched in her hands.

  The brunette girl was already on her ass trying to pull the spear from her thigh. As I approached, she snagged up her rifle quickly and fired a shot at me. Just ten feet away I ducked as I deflected the bullet, just in case. I could see Jada running up with a long knife in her hand like she was prepared to decapitate the girl.

  "No!" Alexa shouted as she left the cover of the stump. Obviously, she was feeling the girl's fear and became sympathetic. I could understand that, but now I had to protect Alexa from getting shot.

  The brunette turned to fire her weapon at Alexa, but nothing happened when she pulled the trigger. While she cocked the weapon to load another round, I picked up a hefty rock from my kneeling position and tossed it in her direction. Using my special skill, I adjusted the aim to strike the rifle and knock it out of her hands. It worked wonderfully. Now that our foe was weaponless, Jada's knife blade stopped just short of the girl's exposed neck. My friend looked like a super sexy female version of Rambo.

  "Don't kill her!" Alexa shouted.

  "She'll report on us if we let her go! We don't need a bunch of armed enemies searching for us." As Jada replied she looked straight at me instead of Alexa. She was awaiting my order.

  "I won't tell!" the girl cried out, trembling with tears pouring down her freckled face. How could I order the death of a defenseless young girl? Now that we were up close, I guessed her to be just fourteen or fifteen years old.

  Jada noticed the expression on my face and knew that I didn't want the girl dead. She slowly withdrew her blade and picked up the girl's rifle instead. I stepped closer and knelt before our defeated enemy as I tried to figure out what to do. Was there a risk to letting her go, like Jada suggested? She didn’t seem like much of a threat. Maybe she joined this clan against her will. Perhaps she would be better off joining us.

  "Are you a captive of your people?" I asked.

  "No," she sobbed. "I joined them with my mother. We don't really take prisoners."

  "Is that your mother?" I asked, gesturing to the assuredly dead woman with the bloody face on the ground beside us?" She shook her head. "Is your mom still alive?" She nodded. "What will you tell them if I let you go?"

  "I'll tell them that we were attacked by a pack of wild dogs and I got separated from Ashley. It has happened before. I'll say that I don't know what happened to her. They won't know that you killed her until they find the body. No one will come this way until they do patrol tomorrow."

  "How far do you patrol?"

  "From this road up to Meadowood," she answered. "We stay away from the main road, too."

  "Mason," Jada said. "Can we take that chance that she won't tell? Even her story could have them searching for this woman tonight."

  "I promise!" the girl cried out. "I’ll tell them we got separated closer to the school where we stay. I don't care where you people go. We just want to protect ourselves and our territory. They won't find you unless you stay here. I promise."

  “Alexa?” I asked our truth finding member. When she nodded, I knew it meant that we should let her go.

  "Let's bandage her leg," I said.

  "Thank you," the girl sobbed, crying even more now that she knew she was going to live through this. I really felt for her and was tempted to convince her to come with us. However, having a family member still alive in this world was so rare, I couldn't consider separating them. She was best off staying with her mother even if their circumstances were not ideal.

  "We're going to move Ashley's body off the road, so she won't be found easily," I told the girl. "I'm sorry that we killed her."

  "I understand," the girl said as she began to regain her composure. "We were going to shoot you. Sometimes it is kill or get killed out here. I don't like it, but what can I do?"

  “You didn’t like her, did you?” Alexa asked the girl.

  The young lady shrugged her shoulders and said, “She wasn’t the nicest person in our clan, but I wouldn’t wish her dead. No one will be terribly upset that she’s gone.”

  The brunette then limped down the driveway hastily without turning back. Once she was out of view, we continued up the hill to check out the four houses anyway. If this was the edge of their colony, and they truly were not looking to expand, we could possibly make this area work for us. It was so remote that I didn’t want to cross it off the list without checking it first. After that, the new plan was to go east toward the main road and then head home, taking note of the area we passed through as we went. I didn't want to linger very close this group's territory longer than necessary without a good reason.

  Jada retrieved and cleaned her weapons. Sometimes she seemed so hardcore that I wondered for a brief moment if I had misjudged her personality at all. If I didn't know her better, I would assume she was a natural born killer by her behavior during a crisis. Truth was, though, that she had just successfully come to terms with what she needed to do to survive in this world. I was a little envious of her for that. It seemed like we made a good threesome. I tried to be realistic but compassionate when I could. Jada was willing to do whatever it took. And Alexa, mostly due to her gift perhaps, was sympathetic with everyone. Together we could make the best decisions.

  We were a little tired after the long hike up the hill and were glad when the first house finally came into view. We gave it a quick once over before moving on to the next, eager to be done with it. The broken windows and debris in the front yard, combined with the small size of the building, made it less desirable than other houses already on our list.

  Alexa's extra sense came in quite handy when approaching each building, or new area for that matter. She could easily tell if the building was occupied by picking up their emotions, possibly even while they were sleeping. Leaning on her helped us move quicker than my customary cautious approach.

  It was all a matter of routine by the time we jimmied open the front door of the last house. That one was nice and tidy except for a few bags on the kitchen counter. Perhaps someone had stayed there for a while recently. Jada checked the bags and declared that they were indeed survival supplies. I glanced at Alexa again to verify that we were alone. She shook her head, so I decided to check the bedrooms for anything that might tell us more.

  I opened the first door on the right, which turned out to be a bathroom. Pulling that door closed I moved on to the next. Before I could get that one all the way open, I was struck in the forehead with a wooden baseball bat. I didn't see it coming in time to deflect it. The person attacking me must have swung the thing with all their might. I knew nothing but the pain it caused at that moment. I felt my eyes cross as I lost clear vision and fell to the floor in front of a small pair of women's sandals, which were occupied by thin, pale skinned feet. Then everything went blank.

  When I finally woke up, I was seated on the sofa in the living room of the same house. I had obviously been placed there after I passed out. When I tried to lean forward my head throbbed with excruciating pain. I attempted to pull both hands to my face, but one was gripped by someone else. I turned to see Alexa's beautiful face smiling at me.

  "Mason, you're awake. Thank God, I was so worried about you." I complained about my headache when she pulled me into a hug, but I was delighted that she was okay. Things could have been much worse. Without my protection she might have been killed or taken captive. I still had no idea what was going on.

  I could hear two female voices in the kitchen. One was Jada's, but I didn't recognize the other. It was high pitched and soft at th
e same time, like something delicate and musical.

  "He's awake, Jada," Alexa announced after kissing my cheek.

  "Oh, good!" Jada replied as she hurried into the living room. "I told you he was a tough one. Here's a wet rag to hold against your head, dear. We don't have any ice, of course. How are you feeling?"

  "Just a bad headache," I said.

  "Are you nauseous?" she asked as she placed her face so close in front of me that we could kiss. At first, I thought that was her attention. Instead, she glanced between my eyes possibly checking for dilation. I had just entered into concussion protocol.

  "No, I don't think so."

  When Jada pulled back, I could see the other girl enter the room. I looked to see if her feet were touching the ground because she appeared to glide toward me so smoothly. There I saw the sandals from just before I passed out. The young woman was extremely thin, possibly twenty pounds lighter than Alexa, with pitch black hair and pale skin. Her eye color was so dark that it seemed to match the blackness of her pupils, making deep mesmerizing pools on a perfectly angelic round face.